Raising Sedona

Raising Sedona

When officials from Park City, Utah, visited Sedona, Ariz., last year, a light-hearted conspiracy was hatched to steal away one of the scenic Arizona town’s greatest treasures.

It wasn’t Cathedral Rock, nor was it Courthouse Butte. The target was City Clerk Marie Brown.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., transplant, hired as Sedona’s first employee when the city of 10,192 incorporated in 1988, had wowed the out-of-staters with her energy and wit during an off-the-cuff speech.

“I have to warn you,” one Park City official said to her in a low voice afterward. “There’s a plot afoot to kidnap you and take you back with us.”

The Park City group would have had a fight on its hands.

In a town where magnificent red rock scenery and a lush canyon have elevated Sedona to one of the state’s most popular destinations, it takes someone such as Brown to keep residents down to earth.

It’s hard to imagine another public servant who is as capable, respected, and well loved, say those who know her.

“I jokingly said I voted for incorporation so I could get a job,” Brown says.

The truth is, her curiosity got the best of her.

“I was fascinated, because, how do you start a city?” she says. “It was a great way to learn government from the ground up.”

Brown wasn’t a shoo-in when city officials began looking for Sedona’s first city clerk, but she showed her resourcefulness early on. The night before her job interview, Brown attended the city council meeting, appearing at her interview the following morning with copies of minutes she had typed up. She got the job.

But starting a city wasn’t as easy.

The first “city hall” was a 10-by-10-foot room with a borrowed desk and typewriter. A nail in the wall was Brown’s coat hanger. Because there was so much to be done, city council meetings were held nearly every night. Brown attended every one.

“I was the staff,” she says. “The only staff.”

When Brown first saw Sedona, she—like most everyone who visits the city—had an immediate, overpowering desire to stay.

“It was love at first sight. We were just awestruck,” she says of her first trip to Sedona in 1977, with her husband, James. “We went right across to the real estate office and bought a piece of property.” Ten years later, they, along with their two sons, Sean and Matthew, moved to Sedona for good.

With so much of the town’s pristine beauty at stake, passions tend to run high among Sedona residents. But no matter what side is taken on any given issue, they trust Brown implicitly.

“She’s beyond reproach,” resident Cole Greenberg says.

As Sedona grew, so did the municipal staff, and over the years, Brown continued to take on extra duties. She has handled two or three jobs at a time with relative ease.

At one point, she was city clerk, overseer of the city’s custodial and information services, and head of the parks and recreation department.

“It’s done with smoke and mirrors,” she says, smiling.

Former City Manager Mike Letcher knows better. He calls the decision to name Brown head of parks and recreation one of his best.

“It’s not just a job to her,” he explains. “She has a deep love for the community. The other thing I’m impressed with is that she gets things done, and they’re done very well. And done on time.”

That wasn’t quite the story he told Brown when she asked how he figured her for the role.

“You like to plant flowers, don’t you?” he told her.

The city has a larger-than-life statue dedicated to its namesake, Sedona Schnebly. For its first employee, there is just a simple plaque tacked up in jest on a barrier along a Sedona trail.

“The Marie Brown Rail,” the plaque reads.

The smile on Brown’s face tells you it is enough.

Terri Likens is a freelance writer from Cottonwood, Ariz.

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